Israeli forces killed a senior member of the Islamic militant group Hamas in an airstrike on Gaza City today according to a Palestinian security source said.
Witnesses said a missile hit into a car with two Hamas militants inside. The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the attack.
Meanwhile nine Palestinians were killed in and around the northern Gaza strip as the Israeli army launched a massive operation in the region after a Hamas rocket attack killed two Israeli children in a border town on Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon and his security cabinet ordered the army to carve out a "buffer zone" to halt the rocket strikes that have fuelled right-wing criticism of his plan to withdraw Jewish settlers from Gaza by the end of 2005.
The latest deaths bring to 47 the number of Palestinians killed in the deadliest three days of fighting in northern Gaza since a Palestinian uprising erupted in September 2000. Three Israelis have also died.
The Israeli incursion has focused on Jabalya, Gaza's largest refugee camp and a base for Hamas militants firing a daily barrage of makeshift Qassam rockets into southern Israel.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat condemned the raid, saying: "I appeal to the world to ... stop these inhumane and racist crimes." His prime minister, Mr Ahmed Qurie, cut short a visit to Jordan and cancelled trips to Turkey and Russia.